Whiteout
by BionicleFuzzyMelon
Summary: "Reality bends upon itself for me. Memories; past emotions and feelings all converge upon each other. I, just a fallen Toa of Ice, try to repair the breaking scaffolding of my mind." KopakaxGali Characters deaths; be warned all you peeps attached to your loverly favorite Bionicle characters. Humanized Bionicle. Many events from canon happen; things go wrong in this, though.
1. Chapter 1

Ice.  
Snow.  
Slush. Yeah, definitely the third. Cold, which I dont mind; I am the blasted toa of ice after all. But the wet? Thats another story entirely. I hate being wet. Ironically, it was the very element she embodied. I certainly didn't hate her. Her element. Very unlike what she was; sweet, stubborn, emotional, strong, kind...

I'm rambling aren't I? Can't be helped I guess. Having an introspective, emotional breakdown does tend to make one ramble a bit. With some effort, I roll onto to my back. The wet on my face is only the moisture from that blasted slush. Surely its not tears. Surely. Im the toa of ice. Ice does not melt; its stays hard, frozen. It certainly would be easier to ponder if all these memories would stop playing merry go round in my mind. A cacophony of pictures, sounds smells, voices... That blasted , annoying sobbing doesn't help either...Crap...thats me. I know its from some sort of pain in or on me, though I can't decide if it's the physical from my wounds, or the emotional scars... I need to sort these fragmented memories together. At least so I figure out a way to make them shut up, at least...

Yellow eyes. More like golden, but for the sake of avoiding sounding like a lovestruck fool, we'll just say yellow.

For now... Voices...She was deeply involved in a discussion with my fiery brother, Tahu. He's a whole other story altogether. I can't even remember what they were fighting about. He usually had the upperhand, easily blowing her off. It worked like a charm at setting her off. And so how it was with this particular occasion, her ranting and him with a cocky, smug grin on his face. He wasnt a bad guy, even though you couldn't tell from my spats with him. He meant well, but sometimes s... well alot of the time, he came across as butt.

I could see my other brothers having there own unique reactions to this spat. Onua pondering quietly off to the side, Pohatu trying to intervene in his own friendly albeit (sorry brother, useless)approach, and Lewa, doing what he does best. Absolutly nothing helpful. Doing some handstand, as if each person was on a performance stage, with Gali and Tahu doing a comedy routine, and that green haired idiot vying for attention with his acrobatics. But, can't say I was much help in this spat either; quietly, coldly glaring off to the side, as if it did not affect me at all, when in fact on the inside, the whole uncomfortablness of the situation had me inwardly blubberibg like a fish, and setting every instinct in me to send me running for my icy hills. I don't handle theses social interactions very well~sigh~.

My daydreaming was interrupted by said green haired idiot turning his attention to me. Great. He got bored from the comedy routine...guess I'm next on the list of people he feels the need to annoy. "Hey, icebrother! Watcha ice-glarin at people for? Jealous cause Gali ain't given you attention instead?",he said with a mischievous glintvin his eye.

The area grew quiet extraordinarily fast. Gali just looked at him mortified. Lewa, now realizing what he just said, looked like he was unable to decide whether to laugh at the situation, like a child realizing their bravery in kicking the rock through the window, or to be a shameful mess. I could feel my face heating up, whether from anger or something else I couldn't tell. Why would I be embarrassed? It was just a simple question. Was I jealous? No... certainly not...certainly. Didn't help what the look on Gali's face was doing to me. Why is she red? Agh, my head hurts...

She decided to go a different route in answering. "Lewa, you promised you wouldn't use tree speak anymore. You know it drives Kopaka up a wall, after...that incident..." She said, attempting to sound calm. Darn it, why did she have to bring that up. Some in the group shot me looks of sympathy. Tahu made a noise sounding somewhat like a low growl, telling both of them to drop it. Great. Pity from that fiery idiot. I coolly replied," That incidsnt is in the past. Nothing can change it now. I'm fine.". Liar, my brain retorted, you're not fine and you know it. Any social ability I had dropped out from under me. Thinking departure was the best option, I quietly turned and headed back to my koro. I could hear Gali still attemting at keeping it together as she reprimanded Lewa. Crap, I could hear her start calling me to come back. I kept apoligizing to her...to all of them , in my head. Pretending I couldn't hear, I kept walking. Idiot, my mind kept scolding me...

I was brought back to the present reality upon hearing a loud crunch in the slush off to my right. Turning, I saw my mount collapsing in the snow. Its wounds... from them... those blasted creatures of the dark, were too much for the poor beast to handle. I push myself to my hands and knees, careful of my own wounds, I make my way across to the suffering animal. She whimpers softly in recognition as I slowly approch. She and I both know what has to be done. She looks up at me pleadingly, begging me to stop her pain. I stroke her scaled neck, trying to convey that've understood. I reluctantly unsheathed my sword. I look down at her one last time. She's closed her eyes now, waiting for relief to come. "Goodbye, Mira."...And...its over...

I slump againsg the rock next to her body.

Why am I always left alone? There was a time I craved the isolation, now...it scares me. I close my eyes, knowing the cold can do no harm to me. Sleep, which I thought would be impossible, it comes eventually, sweeping back into a world of dreams and memories. Back to times far simpler. It was my only consolation, being able to see them again, even if only in memories.

As I drifted off, the blizzard grew heavier around me...A whiteout...


	2. Chapter 2-Her voice

**Made while listening to this. Recommended listening! watch?v=qrzNABqN420&amp;list=RDqrzNABqN420#t=17**

**"Kopaka..."**

**"...?"**

**"...paka..."**

**"...Gali?"  
**

**"Kopaka, please wake up!"**

A figure moved in the snow. **What?...Where...?... **he wondered.

Slowly, memories creeped their way into his head. The logical part of his brain started to try and carefully arrange them into distinguishable facts.

**My name...**

**Kopaka.**

**...Location...unknown southern mountain range...yeah, real helpful, **he thought cynically.

**Burning...Wait, what?  
**Kopaka slid his hand down to his leg.

**Sticky...blood...**

More burning on his shoulder.  
**Crap.**

Slowly, painfully he pushed himself to his hands and knees. Then with a shaky push, his feet.  
Suddenly, a realization hit him.  
**GALI?!** He frantically spun around, almost plummeting to the ground again in the process . **Her...voice...**

**Oh,** he thought. **Things are..different now...  
**He pushed back the nightmarish memory clawing at his mind like an animal trying to break loose.

Fighting the growing sensation of the world spinning about, he limped to the top of the hill he was on.  
**Have...to get to that village...**His mind told him.  
The Toa of ice switched mask of vision on and began scanning the area. He stopped, though, when a flash of red appeared in the far distance.

Before he could get a better look, a wave of nausea and dizziness hit him hard.  
**Lay down before you fall down!,** His brain told him.

Laying there in the snow with ears ringing and head spinning, he could only think how vulnerable of a place this left him in.  
"Some hero I am, floundering around on the ground. Heh..." he muttered delusionally. Black slowly clouded his vision, and everything drifted away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Kopaka!"

He glanced behind to see the Toa of water running after him.

**Great**, he thought, **so much for leaving the toa meeting easily.**

Feeling strangely obligated, he stopped and turned to meet his fate. (**Dummy**, he thought, mentally kicking himself for being soft. **Just go; you can outrun her!**)

Too late.  
She approached him, panting slightly, and pushed her dark hair back.

"What?" he asked tersely, anxious to get away from this confrontation.

"Kopaka, what. Is. Wrong?, she asked, slightly exasperated.

"...wrong?" he asked, trying to play dumb.

"Don't play coy with me Kopaka! I know you better; we ALL do. There's something more going on, and you're not telling us. It has to do with that incident with the Le-matoran, doesn't it? You can tell us!"

Kopaka's eyes narrowed. So much for playing dumb...  
"Not. Talking. About. It.", he said stiffly. By now, his tone of voice would have sent the majority packing.

But, Gali wasn't the "majority", and wasn't about to back down.  
"Don't give me that! If something is hurting you, we're you're family, and we want to help you. But we can't help if you don't let us!", she said, her voice cracking slightly.

Kopaka stared hard at her. **Don't make me do this, Gali... Dang it, don't cry... **He started backing up slowly, trying to get away.  
She followed in step.

He turned around and began picking up the pace, fighting down the annoying emotions trying to surface.  
Suddenly, Gali had had enough and shot a hand to his shoulder to stop him.

A memory shot into Kopaka's, mind then, crushing the emotional barrier.

"**_DON'T TOUCH ME!_**", he screamed at her, shocking them both into to silence.

The following moment was a dead silence, followed by soft whimpering from her.

With that, the Toa of ice spun around,sending his stark white hair shooting around him like a sudden blizzard. **Run, run, run**! His mind screamed.

And he ran.

Leaving behind a sobbing Toa of water...


	3. Chapter 3 -Mishaps

Authors note- (RECOMMENDED READING) To make thing a little clearer on time lines and such, think of the "Flashbacks" as occurrences n the present, that Kopaka from them future is having. I'll try to make notes in between the time changes. Also, while Kopaka would only remember thing from his point of view, for the sake of storytelling, it will switch to others characters perspectives, such as Gali's.

I'll try to put notes in these parts too, so the reader understands. If something doesn't make sense, please tell me and I'll l try to clear it up!

Also, head canons- The flashbacks from Kopaka viewpoint occur after the rahi menace (and whooping Makuta's butt), but before the Bohrok invasion. I know in canon it happened immediately after, but fore this, I'd rather have a time period in between.

Head canon # 2-I don't actually recall what the gold mask did differently than just having all six, so my head canon is that one, they don't have the warm-up time period in between switching masks. Also, it takes more concentration, but they can use two powers (Ex. Strength and speed) simultaneously. So, in effect, they're doubling their power.

"Shut up, FuzzyMelon, and get with the story!" Ok, I'll shut up now…) =w=

~~Gali 3rd person~~

The dark skinned woman ran through the trees, her dark hair whipping about wildly.

Stupid, stupid stupid! Gali's mind screamed at herself. Right now, she was mad. And she was crying. From the hurt, or the anger? That, she couldn't really tell; probably both. She was mad at HIM for being difficult, and mad at herself for causing him pain.

What do I do? What do I do? She kept thinking.

She arrived at her destination, the spot where the Toa meeting was held. Before everything started going wrong. she thought.

Three of the other four toa were missing. Tahu, being the remaining one, stood impatiently tapping his foot and leaning up against one of the boulders in the clearing.

Okay, she thought, pull yourself together! She wiped any remaining tears from her eyes, and hoped her face wasn't still red.

"Where'd the others go?" she asked awkwardly when she was in earshot.

"Onua was called to his village; something about a maintenance tunnel collapsing. Lewa and Pohatu went to check on their villages, and said they'd be back in an hour." Tahu replied.

"Oh", she said quietly, "Why did you stay?

"They told me to, since I'm supposed to check that you two aren't killing each other." He said lazily. With his foot tapping slightly, he reminded her in that moment of a cat; swishing its tail, about to lose interest. "That, and I was obviously nominated since my village is harder to bust into than theirs", he added smugly.

She ignored his comment, which was obviously to egg her into a fight. Instead, she asked quietly, "Tahu, why didn't you go after him? You're the leader; you might have been able to talk some sense into him."

"Hmm", he muttered, his red eyes half-lidded, "He made it quite clear he wanted to be alone."

"What he wants and what he needs are two different things, Tahu. He needs our support now; we need to find out what happened to him and those Le-matoran in order know what's wrong." she said.

The toa of fire was quiet for a minute. Then, he replied," Why are you telling me all this? I thought he's the one you're in love with, and was so bound determined to chase him."

The cat was officially let out of the bag.

"WHAT?!' she shrieked. "You…insensitive…USELESS…PIG!" She screamed, before she could stop [p herself. She turned and ran just as fast as she came in to her Koro.

"Hmm, what's her problem?" Tahu muttered, slightly confused, watching her speed away. (He wasn't even being sarcastic or mean when he had said that to her. Just something that came to his mind; which in Tahu's case, wasn't filtered by tact.)

After a while, Pohatu, and Lewa returned.

"Hmm. Where's water-woman, fire-bro?" Lewa inquired, energetic as usual.

"She ran off that way." He pointed.

"Well, how'd it go?"

"Who knows? All I did was offer her some advice, and she called me an insensitive, useless pig. Hmph, women, I tell you…" He said with a slight pout to his voice.

Lewa spit and snorted the drink he was sipping at, and giggled out, "Bwahahaaaha, Tahu's a useless pig!"

Tahu sent a glare at him, which did nothing in Lewa's current fir of laughter.

"Er, well what exactly did you say to her?" Pohatu inquired, almost afraid to ask.

"Well, I told her that she shouldn't be telling me about what Kopaka needs; she should tell him herself since she's so in love with him."

Pohatu face palmed, and sighed. However, this only intensified Lewa's laughing spell, to the point where his face was red and could hardly breathe.

"Tahu, we leave you alone for an hour, and already you're getting into trouble." Pohatu mumbled.

"What I'd do?!" Tahu cried, exasperated.

"Tahu, let me try and carefully explain to you something important in everyday conversation, called tact. Lewa, you on the other hand, please go and try to soften Gali's mood." Pohatu said.

"Heeheehee, glad to happy-help!" Lewa said with a grin, calming down from laughing. He turned and launched himself into the sky toward Ga-Koro.

Pohatu looked at the grumbling Tahu, and tried to think of a way to patch thing ups between his fellow toa. Man, Onua, you left just in time to escape all this confusion. Looks like we've got our work cut out for us…he thought grimly. Least Lewa's in a good mood…

Gali floated aimlessly in the waters surrounding the lily pad village of Ga Koro. Calm…Be calm, Gali… she told herself. Don't think about hunting Tahu and Kopaka down and plucking their heads off…crap, I am thinking about it…be calm, Gali…CALM, DANG IT!

"Err, Toa Gali?" she heard a feminine voice just above her say.

Gali looked up to see Hahli, one of the villagers, looking down at her from her boat. She was holding onto the sides of it as the boat swayed; still attached to the sea floor by a crude anchor, though.

"What is it, Hahli?" she asked tiredly, not wanting to talk at the moment.

"Err, are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine; what makes you ask?" Gali asked, puzzled.

"Well…" she trailed off and awkwardly pointed. Several fishing skiffs, full of Ga-matoran, were spinning about wildly in a whirlpool a ways away.

"I'm sorry!" Gali yelped, and hurriedly channeled her water energies to calm themselves.

"Thanks" Hahli said, scratching the back of her hair. "Maybe talking to Turaga Nokama would help? It's not like you to be frazzled…"

"I'll be ok", Gali said, putting on a smile to ease the matoran's obvious worry.

With that, she swam back to the village. Maybe I just need a nap; preferably someplace that I won't cause disturbances with powers…

Several minutes later, she was plopped into her hammock outside her hut. Feeling the soft, salty, slightly cool breeze lull her back and forth, she felt some of the tension easing away…

That tension, however, came crashing back onto her though when she heard some excited shouts from the villagers of another Toa approaching. She thought aboout what she should do in this situation…

And she proceeded to throw "should" out the window, and then hide inside her hut.

….

A minute later she heard knocking on her hut's door. Go away, TAHU! her mind screamed.

"Hmmf" she quietly pouted. He's come to be a jerk or tease me, I know it! She buried her face under her pillows.

"Go away…" she muffledly muttered.

She heard her door creak open, but refused to look up. She also heard Nokama welcoming whichever male toa, likely Tahu, in to talk to her.

I'm going to gag her with a fish for tormenting me, after I deal with Tahu. Gali thought, annoyed.

"Gali, someone's hear to see you." She heard Nokama say. Not getting a response from Gali, she sighed and left the two alone.

"I know what you're going to say, and I don't want to hear it." She mumbled adamantly from under the pillow.

No response.

Stubborn fire jerk she thought.

After a period of silence, from which she assumed he left, she was about to sink back down into a cozy nap.

She was going to, until a hand gently touched her shoulder.

That did it. Sweet Gali was gone for that moment; now was a water monster, hurt, and disturbed in her nest.

"I SAID, GO AWAY!" She snapped. She shot up, her hand following quickly after, colliding with something soft and cold; earning a pained grunt from the male.

Wait, cold? Her brain thought numbly. Wouldn't be cold…unless….

Sitting on the floor, thrown down by the force of an angry Toa's slap, was the Toa of Ice. Not Tahu.

Kopaka, sitting on his rump, looking like he just got ran over.

"Eh?" they both muttered in unison.

Crap she thought.

Kopaka, over the paralysis of shock, was up on his feet and out the door as quick as he came in.

"Did I just…hit him?"

She sank to her knees, still in shock.

Why…was he here? Did he come…to apologize?

And the Ga-matoran villagers began the gossip train of the ice Toa's ,(aka "Snow hottie" among the Ga-women), visit.


	4. Chapter 4-Lewa the Diplomat

(This story is getting taken over by other characters, now... Anyway, enjoy!)

Lewa zipped through the scarlet skies of the Ga-wahi sunset; his destination, the village of this prefect.

For most, having a conversation with oneself would seem abnormal. This toa of air saw no fault in it; thus engaging in conversations with himself often.  
"Hmm…if only Kopaka and Tahu had my charisma…then they wouldn't be in this crap-mess with water woman. Oh well, least they have me to ease the tensions with Gali." He said grinning to himself. So lost in thought, he was, that he didn't notice his close proximity to the hut he was aiming for.  
Whoops, he thought right before he went crashing through the thatched roof.

"Man", he muttered, getting up and shaking the bits of straw from his green ponytail. "Need to work on those landings…oh well!" he chirped unfazed, though.

He looked around the hut, puzzled. Hmm, I'm sure Gali would have heard me entering. So where on Mata Nui is she? He thought. This is her hut…I think.

He then heard a muffled sobbing from a corner.

Walking closer, he saw, in a mass of pillows and blankets, the back of Gali's head peeking out from under the covers.  
"Hey, there sister Gali! How's it going?!" he said cheerily.

The answer was a loud sob. She peaked her head out from the covers, eyes red and swollen, and hair in a tousled mess.  
"I keesh meshing thingsh up!" she blubbered.

"Uh…" Lewa said blankly. "Do you…want to talk about it?

"No!" she yelped, and shot back under the covers.

. This is going to be harder than I thought. Then, an idea struck him.  
"…Okay, well I guess I'll be leaving then…" he said, loud enough for her to hear, and turned as if to leave.

"Wait!"' she cried; the mess of wild black hair reappearing from its nest. "Maybe I will talk about it…"

He stopped and turned back around." I thought so", he grinned. He then went and dragged a thatched bamboo chair from a corner and took a seat next to her messy bed. Crossing his arms, he waited for her to begin.

"I…sort of slapped Kopaka…" She said, ashamed, and looked at the ground. "I thought it was Tahu! But…even then, I guess that wouldn't have been right either."

"Why not?" Lewa questioned, a hint of teasing in his voice.

She gave him a look, similar to a school teacher ready to scold a student. "It's not right for me to take my anger out on them like that. Even IF they are stubborn or insensitive."

"Meh, you're too nice." Lewa said, with a wave of his hand. "A few whacks never hurt us men."

"But… I don't want our team to be like this! We should be there for each other, not fighting like toddlers! And now I'm acting like the very people I'm mad at…"

"Well, if you want to patch things up, how are you going to go about doin' that?"

She was quiet for a moment. "I don't know…any suggestions?"

"Uh, I'm a guy; I'm not suited for these kinds of situations. Feelings and all that stuff are more a woman's thing."

"Please Lewa; I need a suggestion from a man's point of view for this!" she pleaded, desperate.

"Hmm…" he muttered, closing his eyes and narrowing his eyebrows in thought. He was quiet for several minutes; almost to the point where Gali thought he fell asleep sitting up.

His eyes shot open then." I just thought of something!", he declared, with his eyes sparkling passionately.

"Really?!" She asked hopefully; the determined tone in his voice and face would have made even the most timid Ga-Matoran think that they could take on Makuta then and there.

"Yup. I just thought of how cool I must've looked with my eyes closed like that!" He grinned and said.

Gali dead panned and flicked him on the forehead hard.

"Oh, the pain" he moaned, and over dramatically dropped to floor, rolling in mock pain and giggling all the while.

"You dork" Gali said, fighting to keep from smiling at her air brother's antics.

"Oh, sooo much pain! I can't even think straight! Only a kiss from a fine maiden will cure this pain!" He said dramatically. Gali giggled and threw a pillow at him, which he caught.

"Whoops, guess there's no fine maidens to kiss here, anyway. Guess I'm dead." He said, flopping onto his back with his eyes closed.

"No girl would kiss you anyway, goofball!"

"Now that cuts deep, Gali. Guess I always have the power of the 'wind', to aid me!" With that he passed gas loudly.

Which sent both of them into laughing fits.

"Stop making laugh; I'm going to pee myself!" She laughed out, her face red from laughing, and threw another pillow at him." Dang it, Lewa, I'm trying to whine here, and you won't let me." She giggled, wiping her eyes from tears of laughter.

"That's better" he said looking at her." Girls aren't supposed to be crying; they look better laughing and smiling!" ,he said and grinned up at her.

She smiled back.

"Oh, and I did actually think of something that might help you!"

"This ought to be rich." she said, sarcastically, though she did feel some of the tension easing away.

"Well, I remember this Ga-matoran that would come and visit one of my villagers all the time. They both had a thing for each other, but neither one had the guts to spill the beans. So, the Ga Matoran goes and gets him a gift. Some shell or rock or crap. Anyway, she writes her feeling down, ties it to the gift, then ' fwing'! Throws it through his window."

"That sounds more like vandalism than problem solving…",she said, skeptically.

"It did scare the living daylights out of him; but they both laughed about the whole absurdity of the situation, which broke the ice between them. Now, as far as I know, they started dating each other. Problem solved."

"B-But I'm not confessing to Tahu or Kopaka; I just want to apologize!" she said, flustered.

"No, but the idea of breaking the ice still could work. If anything, it's always worth a shot as a plan B. Besides, you do seem to have a thing for Kopaka, am I right?"

"Well…" she said hesitantly; her face reddening.

"There you go! So go patch things up with 'em!" He said, pulling her to her feet.

"Thanks, Lewa. I'll try my best". She smiled, and hugged him.

He smiled, too, and patted her shoulder. He then sighed. "Man, I'm getting hugged by a girl, but it feels more like I'm another girl that you're confiding in…" he whined.

"Baka." she giggled and turned to go. (Baka=idiot)

"Oh, and Gali? Keep smiling!" He said and gave her thumbs up.

"Kay!" she said, and activated the gold mask. She then sped off to Ko-koro.

Success he thought. Now off to spy on them! He was about to shoot into the air, when an annoyed female voice said from behind him, "Oh, where O' where do you think you're going, young man?"

"Hehe, uh, nowhere?", he chuckled nervously at Nokama.

"You, mister, have a roof to fix!"

Crap he thought…


	5. Chapter 5-Feelings in the snow

The toa of stone trudged through the snow, looking for his Icy brother

The Toa of ice excelled at covering his tracks, making it that much more difficult to locate him in the icy tundra. It seemed to be a common trait with Kopaka; stay silent, unseen, and undetected.

Pohatu chuckled to himself and wrapped his cloak around himself tighter.  
He probably wipes his own house down for fingerprints, so you wouldn't even know he lived there He thought. Oh well, that's what makes Kopaka himself.

He also had an odd habit of showing up in places randomly. He once scared his own Turaga so bad for sneaking up on him, that Turaga Nuju gave him an order to shuffle his feet loudly when approaching, just so he would know he was there. It wasn't always intentional for Kopaka to be this way either.

On one occasion, Lewa sat on him at a toa meeting, not knowing he was there.

Which, Kopaka then proceeded to throw him through a tree. He didn't sit much at Toa meetings after that, and tended to avoid the Toa of Air.

Pohatu's line of thought was cut short when he trip over something solid. Eh?! He landed face first in the snow, and heard a grunt behind him. He scrambled to his feet and readied himself for an attack.  
But, no. It wasn't any Massive rahi's tail he tripped over.

It was Kopaka, lying face in the snow first What?

"Uh, Kopaka?" he asked, bewildered.

Kopaka's face came out the snow and he looked at Pohatu blankly. "What?'

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Lying in the snow" He answered quietly.

"I can see that, but why, may I ask?"

"It's calming."

By now, Kopaka's strange behavior was slightly freaking Pohatu out. This was Kopaka, Mr. no nonsense, nothing done without a reason type of person. Not the type to be randomly lying in the middle of nowhere.  
He then noticed the red mark on the side of Kopaka's face. Ahh, this might explain something.

"Would this have anything to do with a certain Toa of water?" He asked, concerned.

"….Maybe." Kopaka said; not looking at him.

"What happened?" Pohatu asked.

Kopaka hesitated.

"It's not going to be too much of a surprise; I heard some of it from Tahu. It seems she had a little run in with him, as well. So, talk if you want to." Pohatu reassured him.

Kopaka seemed to still be hesitant, but eventually responded. "She…hit me…then said to go away. I think she hates me. When she approached me after the meeting…I snapped at her…."

"Hmm," Pohatu hummed in thought, and sat down next to him. Cringing slightly from the cold, but he remained anyway. "I don't think she hates you. Or Tahu, for that matter. Her way of showing concern just comes out that way. She has been worried about you; we all have. She usually wants to find and fix the problem; sometimes regardless of whether that person wants help fixing it or not."

"…"

"This may come as a surprise to you, Kopaka, but not everyone despises you like you think they do." Pohatu said bluntly.

"…"

Speaking of which…" Pohatu's attention was diverted away.

Kopaka followed his train of vision and saw what he was looking at.

Gali.

She stood in the snow about fifteen feet away, bundled like an Eskimo and fidgeting nervously in place.

Finally she spoke. "Pohatu, do you know where Tahu went?"

"Yeah, he was heading back to Ta-Koro. Why? Want me to haul him here?"

"Yes, please."

"Kay, be back in a flash", he said, sending a wink of encouragement to Kopaka and speeding off.

That left the two of them there to figure out what to do.

"Hi", she said quietly.

Kopaka rose to his feet, looking like he was ready to bolt again.

Okay, Lewa, here goes nothin'! Wait. I forgot a gift! Crap! She thought desperately. She looked down, and got an idea. This will have to work….

There he goes trying to run again!

Nope She thought finally, and bolted toward him. "FREEZE, Toa of Ice!" She yelled. He stiffened, but didn't move. More of shock than anything.

WAAAAAAAHHHH!She collided into him with a tackle that sent both of them spiraling backwards several yards.

"The heck was that for?!" Kopaka snapped after getting his bearings. He was met with a face full of snow. "I…can't get everything out that I want to say, so this snow will carry everything else! I'm trying to get what I want to sat…together…so…please don't say anything until I'm done…" She said, looking down at the ground.  
"I owe you an apology….I'm sorry…" she continued, and this time, Kopaka stayed quiet.

I…feel like I'm getting left behind around all of you sometimes…I want to be of help…but then I mess things up…" She looked up into his eyes." I didn't know it was you; I wouldn't have hit you….honestly I thought it was Tahu…which wasn't right either… I'm just frustrated….that I can't help more… Can you forgive me?"

He was quiet for a moment, and then said something barely audible.

"What?"

"I said…I am sorry, too…." He said, and then slowly, carefully, brought his hand up to pat her head. It was an odd gesture, one that may seem strange to many. But to Gali, it was enough; that was his awkward little way of communicating the things he couldn't say either.

So, they sat there in the snow, him petting her head, and her remaining absolutely still; staring at each other.

"Ahem!"

They both looked over to see Pohatu standing with the Toa of Fire.

They scrambled apart, flushing.

"I see you too have patched things up!" Pohatu said happily.

Tahu just rolled his eyes. Which then widened when Gali came barreling toward him, and smooshed snow into his face as well. "MMPHFF!"

"I'MSORRRYBUTMADEMEMADBUTI'MSTILLSORRYMORON!" She rambled out.

Tahu pushed the snow off, and grumbled, "Yeah, Yeah, I get it…"

"Really?! I didn't think that actually work!" she said, surprised.

"Then why'd you do it to me, anyway?!"

"It made me feel better, anyway…"she said with a contented sigh."Now, say you're sorry, too!"

"Never!" Tahu said stubbornly and took off running, with Gali shouting and chasing after him.

Pohatu sighed in contentment. "Looks like things are finally back to normal."

Kopaka nodded quietly. Pohatu, however, saw a brief look of pain cross Kopaka's face, and then disappear. He decided to keep quiet about it; already been a lot of commotion for the antisocial Toa of Ice today.

After a while, Pohatu and Tahu said their goodbyes and went back to their own homes.

Gali and Kopaka walked home together under the sparkling sky, filled with a seemingly endless amount of stars. Neither said anything; both were just content to take in the night's atmosphere.  
She was vaguely curious as to why he walked this far; the trail back to his own home was a while back, but she kept quiet.

In the darkness, she felt Kopaka's cool hand brush against hers, sending her insides fluttering. Calm Down! she told herself mentally. He stopped, indicating that he would head back to his own now. She smiled in gratitude for walking her home.  
He opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it again quickly; making it seem like she dreamt the action. She turned and left, walking the stretch of sand back to her hut.

All seemed well on that night. Well, almost all. As he turned to leave, his face scrunched in pain, and he clutched his chest; gripping a nearby tree for support to keep from falling.

"Not…again…."He whispered hoarsely.


End file.
